Damien is halfway home to the top seed for the ILH Division II playoffs.

Quarterback Marcus Faufata-Pedrina threw five touchdown passes and the Monarchs rushed for 324 yards in a 40-27 win over Pac-Five on Friday evening at Aloha Stadium.

Shaun Apiki caught three touchdown passes and Damien (4-1, 2-0 ILH D-II) earned its seventh consecutive win over the Wolfpack (2-1, 0-1).

“We started to slow down a bit when we came to halftime, but we had to pick it up at the end,” said Apiki, who had four catches for 28 yards. “We’ve got to play these teams one more time each and know we have to clean things up.”

Damien coach Eddie Klaneski was a bit frustrated after the game despite the victory.

“We just got by,” Klaneski said. “We try to teach our kids to have a killer instinct, but when we have our opponent put away, we don’t finish them off well enough.”

Pac-Five hadn’t played in 28 days and it showed in the first 12 minutes as Damien raced out to a 21-0 lead.

Faufata-Pedrina, who injured his back in a win over St. Francis last week, sat out the first series and came in near the goal line on Damien’s second drive. He was stopped for no gain on his first run and then hit Apiki for a 5-yard touchdown.

Justice White added an 18-yard touchdown run and Faufata-Pedrina found Akila Arecchi for a 10-yard score to get the big lead.

Faufata-Pedrina said a team rule, and not the injury, was the reason he didn’t start.

“Team rules that I’ve got to abide by,” said Faufata-Pedrina, who has thrown 15 touchdown passes in five games. “Shaun always finds a way to get open, and even if he isn’t quite open, he’s bigger than everybody on the field.”

Pac-Five settled in to start the second quarter and scored a minute in when quarterback Ryan Johnson snuck it in from the 1-yard line.

Faufata-Pedrina responded with a 22-yard pass to Arecchi on third-and-5 and flicked a 7-yard fade pass to Apiki for his third passing TD of the half.

Pac-Five stayed in the game with Johnson finding Jett Uechi on a 13-yard TD pass with 3:44 remaining. Damien drove into Pac-Five territory, but defensive back Kaikea Gonsales intercepted a pass just before the half to keep it a 28-13 game.

Grey Ihu, who had five receptions for 132 yards, caught a 49-yard touchdown from Johnson to make it 28-19 through three quarters.

Damien put the game away with two more touchdown passes from Faufata-Pedrina.

Johnson finished 23-for-41 for 352 yards and four total touchdowns for Pac-Five.

Ihu found the end zone a second time on a 58-yard score in the final minutes when he broke three different tackles near the 40 and raced down the sideline.

“Missed tackles at the end of the game shouldn’t happen,” Klaneski said. “He made a nice play over there, but that’s just wrapping up and we’ve got to get him down.”